Today, I received the following email from Comcast. Before I comment, take a look at the verbiage….

Dear Comcast High-Speed Internet Customer,

We appreciate your business and strive to provide you with the best online experience possible. One of the ways we do this is through our Acceptable Use Policy (AUP). The AUP outlines acceptable use of our service as well as steps we take to protect our customers from things that can negatively impact their experience online. This policy has been in place for many years and we update it periodically to keep it current with our customers’ use of our service.

On October 1, 2008, we will post an updated AUP that will go into effect at that time.

In the updated AUP, we clarify that monthly data (or bandwidth) usage of more than 250 Gigabytes (GB) is the specific threshold that defines excessive use of our service. We have an excessive use policy because a fraction of one percent of our customers use such a disproportionate amount of bandwidth every month that they may degrade the online experience of other customers.

250 GB/month is an extremely large amount of bandwidth and it’s very likely that your monthly data usage doesn’t even come close to that amount. In fact, the threshold is approximately 100 times greater than the typical or median residential customer usage, which is 2 to 3 GB/month. To put it in perspective, to reach 250 GB of data usage in one month a customer would have to do any one of the following:

Thank you again for choosing Comcast as your high-speed Internet provider.

I especially like the phrase…”In addition to modifying the excessive use policy, the updated AUP contains other clarifications….”

Now… I ain’t a Broadband expert. And I never heard about these AUPs, but I don’t like the tone of this note! I can smell this one from a mile away!! How dumb do they think we are??? I can see through this like a picture window!!

PTIers, where there is smoke there is fire. All of a sudden Comcast wants to start monitoring your individual broadband usage, then there will be a charge for going over the limit, then there will be a “new” plan that will offer to save the “light” users money, and then BANG!!! … average users will be thrown into the high category, and we will all be paying by the GB!! Where there is smoke there is fire, call me the smoke alarm PTIers…. Just like the robot on Lost in Space (younger PTIers won’t know what I am talking about), but WARNING, WARNING, WARNING, DANGER, DANGER…

Help PTIers, we need to stop this train before it gets to the station. We need to squash this before its too late.

OK, PTIers, before you go asking why I am down to these two options, and not looking outside of Sprint, I have too many phones on my family plan and the cancellation and reactivation fees would almost render me homeless!!! We have several posts about this unethical situation.

The fact of the matter is that my PPC 6800 has and is still delivering on every aspect of functionality that I expected no complaints. However, its time. Its time for a new smartphone. I like physical keyboards, so any “touch” version is out. I need bluetooth, I want GPS enabled this time, I want a touch screen, and its got to be wifi.

With these requirements, I am left with two choices from Sprint. The HTC Mogul which is the successor to my PPC 6700, and the Treo 800w.

Come on PTIers share some of the unwritten pros and cons with me. You long term PTIers remember my issues with the 700w that pointed me to the PPC 6800, in the first place. Should I go with the next version of what I have? or should I try the new 800w and jump on the Treo bandwagon again? Tell it like it is and tell me what you think.

I have to admit, my philosophy has always been, “If it ain’t broke don’t fix it”. This has especially been my opinion about web browsers. PTIers have helped me make a lot of decisions in my tech life, so I thought I would ask you all if it is time to change browsers. Instead of searching features and such, I thought I would ask you all what you think of the comparison. Is it time to take advise from the Man in the Mirror and make that change? Is it too early to tell. Let me hear from the PTIers to see what you think. Share some of the hidden features and advantages that you see, and let’s see if Chrome really has the bling.

I will admit upfront that I am not an easy sell when it comes to change.